Evidence: Grade boundaries are not fixed Q25 Awarding Organisations were asked to provide details and examples, or links to where possible the information they gave or made available to schools about grade boundaries in response to the following statement: We have heard comments from schools about the information they were given or could access about grade boundaries. For example, reference to grade calculators on AO websites and suggestions or even confirmation that January boundaries would be maintained for June. AQA provided an extract from their teacher standardisation booklet below. This explains that GCSE grades are only meaningful when applied to the entire GCSE. They also explain that student achieving very different marks on individual units might achieve the same overall grade on aggregation. They go on to explain that uniform marks are different form raw marks and how grade boundaries are established. They also go on to say that it is possible to give a rough indication of standard by using professional judgement as the C grade standard is known in the current specification and work will be similary marked in new specifications. They do though
go on to say that some grade information reported to various groups is less than reliable. They also stressed the importance of marks bands as a route forward and that teachers do not stops pushing students when they achieve their target grade. It is believed that there is confusion between raw and uniform marks. Uniform marks are published in the AQA specification for each unit, this may cause confusion. AQA publish a lot of imformation on their website on what uniform marks are, why they are used and how they are calculated. They include a calculator that can be used to convert raw marks into uniform marks for any particular qualification, series and units. An example reiterating that unifrom marks and raw marks are not the same thing is present on their website on the page estimating grades for new English specifications. This section also does state that there is no direct benchmark for the first year in a new qualification and that this can be addresed by using professtional judgement. They state The overall standard of GCSEs has not changed with the introduction of the new specifications, so students are likely to gain similar subject grades as students of comparable ability have in previous years.
http://web.aqa.org.uk/exams-office/about-results/grade-boundaries-english.php Edexcel provide guidance on their website on how grade boundaries are awarded.
They state that uniform mark grade boundaries are fixed and that raw mark grade boundaries may change. This is provided for both teachers and students and learners.
http://www.edexcel.com/results/understanding/pages/ums-mark-convertors.aspx They provide a tracking spread sheet for teachers to monitor their student s results and monitor their achievement. Extract form documents submitted to Ofqual outlining the purpose is included below. They also so provide a UMS mark converter tool. This is a post-results service that allows centres to convert UMS marks shown on results slips to raw marks. This is designed to let teachers know how far a student is from the raw mark boundary. It can also be used when awarding marks in mock examinations and using past papers. In the guidance there is again guidance on the fact that grade boundaries are set using raw marks and that they are then converted to uniform marks.
http://www.edexcel.com/subjects/english/pages/vieweditorial.aspx?editorial=736
They also have frequently asked questions the example below relates to controlled assessment and making predictions and estimated grades. These are extracted from the documents submitted to Ofqual in the reply to the above question. OCR replied OCR has not developed a grade calculator - so no link to provide - and we did not confirm or suggest that the January boundaries would be used for June. At our training events and regional meetings we will have been careful to explain that previous boundaries could be used only as an indication for the future. On their website they provide explanations of how awards are made and what uniform marks are and how grades are calculated.
http://www.ocr.org.uk/learners/ums/index.aspx OCR provide, as all awarding organisations do, grade boundaries from recent series to support the interpretationof provisional results and to help when using their past papers and mark schemes. http://www.ocr.org.uk/administration/results/results_stats/?wt.ac=qlstats_160812 WJEC responded as follows:
i) a relationship between the bands used in controlled assessment marking schemes and grades A, C, and F can to some extent be inferred from the wording used within the banded marking scheme and the wording used within the grade descriptors for A, C and F. ii) our teachers guide for these specifications contained a table which indicated notional grade boundaries for controlled assessment units: our English subject team has recently withdrawn this document from our website pending the removal of that table as, in the light of other awarding bodies experience, it could be misinterpreted as we move into a second awarding cycle for the controlled assessments (to date, we have only awarded these units once, in summer 2012). iii) for written units awarded in previous series, the grade boundaries are in the public domain. iv) we do not have grade calculators, and as controlled assessments had not been awarded prior to summer 2012 the question of constancy of grade boundaries for these would not yet have arisen in WJEC s case; for the externally assessed units, we believe that centres have an awareness of the extent to which grade boundaries can vary between series. The following is a screen shot from the WJEC website guidance for students and parentshttp://www.wjec.co.uk/index.php?nav=6 This gives links to guidance on uniform marks and how they are assigned to qualifications and units. They list the uniform marks that assigned to all units at GCSE. They also list the uniform marks grade boundaries. They also provide a link to their grade boundary information for recent series. On this page there is also a link to why uniform marks are used and how raw marks are converted to uniform marks.
The above teachers guide is no longer on the WJEC website so cannot be used in future awarding. The controlled assessment unit was only awarded for the first time in June 2012.